`It has really been a wake-up call.` Child care shortage puts parents on edge
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

Frantic parents who feared their west-end Toronto daycare would be closing Aug. 31, are breathing easier this weekend after the owner agreed to stay open for another year.“Everybody is feeling quite happy and relieved,� said area mother Alex Harris. “But it really shows how vulnerable families are when it comes to child care in this city.�Harris waited a year-and-a-half to get an infant spot for her son Jack at Humberside Daycare in January. The Junction-area centre is licensed to serve 116 children under age 6 and is the only daycare within walking distance of Harris’s home near Annette St. and Runnymede Rd.She and more than 70 other parents were shocked when they received a letter this week informing them the centre would be closing. Many worried they would have to quit work or delay returning to their jobs due to the lack of licensed options in their community.Parents’ panic was heightened by a new report this week that shows 44 per cent of non-school-age children in Canada live in so-called “child care deserts,� where licensed spaces are scarce.Humberside is in a neighbourhood where there are licensed spots for just 39 per cent of children under age 3.Advocates say the scramble is also an example of why the market approach to child care doesn’t work.“This is why we need a publicly-delivered child care system,� said Toronto Councillor Janet Davis, a longtime child care champion on city council.“We don’t expect parents to rely on private schools for an education … it should be the same for child care,� she said. “Parents shouldn’t have to rely on the business acumen, or interest of private entrepreneurs to be able to access a basic public service like child care.�Daycare owner Felix Bednarski, who also runs the nearby Humberside Montessori School with his wife Molly Galle, said they are now in their 70s and want to focus on the school.But the outcry from ...